China vows to deepen economic cooperation with Belgium

Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao vowed to promote healthy and stable development of China-Belgium and China-EU cooperation, and urged the EU to relax trade restrictions on high-tech products.

China is willing to expand cooperation with Europe in digital and innovative sectors, and hopes Europe can relax export restrictions on high-tech products, Wang said on Friday during a roundtable for Belgian enterprises amid the Belgian Prime Minister's visit to China.

Prime Minister of Belgium Alexander De Croo paid an official visit to China on Thursday and Friday last week, marking the first visit to China by a Belgian prime minister since 2016.

The China-Belgium and China-Europe trade structure is a reflection of multiple factors, such as the overall industrial structure, market demand and international trading conditions of the two sides.

China has never pursued a trade surplus and has expanded imports from Belgium and Europe through initiatives such as the China International Import Expo, said Wang.

Wang said that the alleged accusations of "overcapacity" related to China's new-energy sector by Europe were groundless as China's new-energy vehicle industry is making a positive contribution to the global green transition.

China firmly opposes the EU's countervailing probe into China-made electric cars, and noted that excessive government intervention in enterprises' business will bring uncertainties and risks, Wang noted.

China will actively implement the consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, and promote cooperation between small and medium-sized enterprises in China and Belgium, said Wang.

The roundtable was the first discussion meeting hosted by China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) under the foreign enterprise roundtable mechanism, which indicates China's close attention to the economic and trade relationship with Europe, said Wang.

Representatives from over 20 Belgian enterprises appreciated China's response to their feedback on investment and cooperation in sectors such as agricultural products, biomedicine and logistics, and are willing to further facilitate China-Belgium and China-Europe economic trade development, according to MOFCOM.

Xi congratulates Danish King Frederik X on enthronement

Chinese President Xi Jinping sent congratulations on Sunday to new Danish King Frederik X on his accession to the throne.

Xi said that China-Denmark relations have achieved rapid growth since the establishment of bilateral diplomatic ties 74 years ago, with bountiful cooperation results in various fields and the friendship between the peoples increasingly deepening.

He said he highly regards the development of China-Denmark relations, and is willing to work with King Frederik X to constantly elevate the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries, so as to bring more benefits to the two peoples.

Xi also sent regards and blessings to former Danish Queen Margrethe II who announced her abdication on Sunday.

China, Maldives elevate ties, underscoring mutual support

Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks with President of the Republic of Maldives Mohamed Muizzu in Beijing on Wednesday. Chinese experts said that the elevation of China-Maldives relations will bring more development opportunities to the peoples of two countries as well as to the Indian Ocean region, which is significant to China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the economic and energy security of China. 

According to the Xinhua News Agency, Xi welcomed Muizzi at a ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, before holding a bilateral meeting with Muizzu, who is paying a five-day state visit to China from January 8-12. The two heads of state announced the elevation of bilateral ties to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership during the talks. 

China stands ready to exchange governance experience with the Maldives, strengthen the synergy of development strategies, advance high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, and set a new benchmark for the China-Maldives friendship, Xi said. 

He called on the two sides to strengthen cooperation in such areas as the economy, trade and investment, agricultural parks, and the blue, green and digital economies. He also called for expanded cooperation on marine ecological and environmental protection, as well as strengthened people-to-people exchanges. He said China will support more Maldivian students to study in China and promote more direct flights between the two countries. 

Xi noted that the two sides should strengthen multilateral communication and coordination to safeguard genuine multilateralism and the common interests of developing countries, and build a community with a shared future for humanity to make the world more peaceful, secure and prosperous.

Muizzu said he was honored to pay his first state visit to China with a number of important cabinet ministers and become the first foreign head of state that China has hosted this year, fully demonstrating the great importance both sides attach to the development of bilateral relations.

Noting that this year marks the 10th anniversary of President Xi's historic state visit to the Maldives, Muizzu said that China has provided a significant amount of valuable assistance to his country's economic and social development. He said the Maldivian people have benefited greatly from the BRI, citing the Maldives-China Friendship Bridge as a symbol of the bond between the two peoples. 

After their talks, the two heads of state witnessed the signature of an action plan to establish the China-Maldives comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, as well as cooperation documents on the construction of the Belt and Road, disaster management, the economy and technology, infrastructure, people's livelihoods, green development, and the blue and digital economies. 

Strategic significance

Zhao Gancheng, a research fellow at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies, told the Global Times on Wednesday that although Maldives is a small country in terms of land area and population, in terms of geopolitics, it has very high strategic significance.

"The Indian Ocean is far from us, but it's extremely important to the economic and energy security of our country, as well as the BRI, so China needs to try its best to make friends in the region," Zhao noted. 

Xi said at the meeting with Muizzu that China respects and supports the Maldives in exploring a development path suited to its national conditions, and supports the Maldives firmly in safeguarding its national sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and national dignity.

Muizzu said the Maldives pursues the one-China policy firmly. Firm mutual support in safeguarding national sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity is a solid foundation for the sustained and sound development of Maldives-China relations.

The Maldives supports the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative, all of which were put forward by President Xi, and is willing to communicate and cooperate closely with China on international and regional affairs, Muizzu noted.

Hu Zhiyong, a research fellow at the Institute of International Relations at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Wednesday that Muizzu's visit to China shows that Maldives sincerely wants to develop ties with China and strengthen existing cooperation.

"Muizzu's pledge to the Maldivian people that there will be 'no foreign military presence,' makes India angry, so the newly elected president will surely hope China can help his country deal with the pressure from New Delhi," Hu said.

China-Maldives relations do not target any third party, but due to India's aggressive stance against its neighbor, countries in the region will definitely want to diversify their ties to preserve their national dignity and sovereignty via cooperation with other major powers like China, said Chinese experts. 

This is why the normal development of ties between China and Maldives is making some India elites and decision-makers anxious, although it is unnecessary and exposes New Delhi's intention to suppress its neighbors, said analysts.

Cooperation between China and Maldives, as well as other countries in the Indian Ocean will face challenges and uncertainties from India's interruption, so China and Maldives need to work together to strengthen their security cooperation to ensure the implementation and operation of other projects, and to jointly oppose foreign intervention, Hu noted. 

According to Indian media, some Indian internet users are launching a boycott campaign against Maldives amid tensions between Maldives and India, and reports claim that Muizzu is trying to attract more Chinese tourists to the Maldives to offset the loss caused by India's boycott. 

Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times on Wednesday that Chinese tourists will return to Maldives step by step in the post-pandemic era, because it is a well-known paradise for tourism among Chinese public, so the return of Chinese tourists will not be driven by so-called political reasons or any diplomatic activity. 

China had remained as the largest source of tourist arrivals in the Maldives for years before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, nearly 300,000 Chinese tourists visited the Maldives, accounting for around 17 percent of total tourist arrivals that year, Xinhua reported. 

It would be short-sighted and narrow-minded to understand the development of China-Maldives ties only based on tourism. Hu said that apart from the tourist industry, both sides can explore cooperation in other fields related to tourism, such as protection of coastal and marine ecosystems, and the development of the maritime economy, as well as public health cooperation like promoting traditional Chinese medicine to help local people to get better healthcare.

US spreads China-related spy claims while launching large-scale intelligence activities against China: Chinese FM

In response to some media reports about a US Navy sailor being sentenced to 27 months in jail on Monday on China-related spy charges, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said she did not know the specific situation, but added that the US is spreading China-related spy claims while launching spying activities against China.

A former US sailor was sentenced to 27 months in jail on Monday for accepting nearly $15,000 in bribes from a Chinese intelligence officer in exchange for photos of unclassified private US military information, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

"I don't know the specific situation, but I have noticed that senior US intelligence officials have publicly disclosed that progress has been made in rebuilding the US intelligence network in China," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Tuesday during a press briefing when asked about the spy charges.

While the US is spreading information claiming that Chinese spies are involved in the case, it is publicly orchestrating plans to launch large-scale intelligence activities against China. This approach itself is very revealing. China will take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard national security, Mao said.

CIA director William Burns revealed in 2023 that his agency has "made progress" in rebuilding its spy networks in China. China has unveiled some US-led espionage cases against China in 2023, for example, China's national security authority cracked a US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) espionage case involving a Chinese government employee who had been managed by the Japan branch of the US intelligence agency.

China's State Council studies measures to develop 'silver economy'

China's State Council, the cabinet, on Friday studied policy measures to develop the "silver economy," or the elderly care industry, which is widely expected to account for one-third of China's economy by 2050 given the country's ageing population.

An executive meeting of the State Council noted that developing the silver economy is a crucial measure to actively respond to the aging population and promote high-quality development, and is beneficial both in the short term and in the long run, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

The meeting noted the need to fulfill the government's responsibility of ensuring basic needs and to safeguard the bottom line, strengthen basic livelihood protection for the elderly, and increase the supply of basic public services. It also called for giving the market full play to better meet the multi-level and diverse needs of the elderly, and to jointly promote the development and growth of the silver economy.

The meeting noted that relevant policy measures should be continuously improved to tackle urgent problems such as home care and healthcare for the elderly.

China has been stepping up efforts to develop the silver economy in recent years in an effort to handle the aging population, which has become a hot topic in global headlines.

In February 2022, the State Council issued a plan for the development of the country's elderly care services system during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), which included major goals in various aspects, including expanding the supply of elderly care services and improving the health support mechanism for the elderly.

In May, China released a guideline to build a basic elderly care system by 2025, offering coverage for the entire elderly population, according to Xinhua.

China's elderly population aged 60 and above reached more than 280 million by the end of 2022, accounting for 19.8 percent of the total population, and by 2050, the elderly could account for one-third of China's total population, according to a report in the Economic Daily newspaper.

With the rising elderly population also comes vast potential for the "silver economy." According to the Economic Daily report, the elderly care market could account for one-fifth of China's GDP by 2030 and one-third of China's total GDP by 2050.

A previous report from Fudan University in Shanghai said that the "silver economy" could reach 1.9 trillion yuan by 2035, accounting for 9.6 percent of China's total GDP.

Wage decline in China short-term phenomenon; employment market to maintain stability in 2024: experts

Chinese experts said on Friday that a decline in wages offered to Chinese workers in the fourth quarter of 2023 is a short-term phenomenon amid enterprises recovering profits, and expressed optimism over stable employment and residential incomes in 2024, in response to some Western media reports that said wages offered to Chinese workers in major cities saw the largest decline on record last quarter.

Bloomberg reported on Thursday that average salaries offered by companies to new hires in 38 key Chinese cities stood at 10,420 yuan ($1,458) in the fourth quarter of 2023, down 1.3 percent year-on-year, the worst drop since at least 2016, citing data from Chinese job-hunting platform Zhili-an Zhaopin.

"Wage decline in some industries is a short-term phenomenon as companies' profits are recovering. However, we should note that some industries representing the country's new productive forces have shown continuous salary increases," Cong Yi, a professor at the Tianjin School of Administration, told the Global Times on Friday.

According to a report Zhilian Zhaopin sent to the Global Times on Friday, wages in the country's new energy and electricity industries reached 11,840 yuan in the fourth quarter, up 3.3 percent year-on-year over the period, as enterprises accelerate talent hiring for expansion.

Along with continuous services and consumption recovery, wages offered to new hiring in the hospitality and catering industry rose by 2.4 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter, while the transport industry reported 1.5 percent growth, showed the report.

The statistics illustrate that although the country's employment pressure persists, some structural changes have emerged, with new economy, new energy and advanced manufacturing industries reporting increases in both wages and hiring scale, Li Chang'an, a professor at the Academy of China Open Economy Studies of the University of International Business and Economics, told Global Times on Friday.

Cong expressed optimism for a stable employment market and income growth in the country in 2024, given the sound performance of the country's private economy and a flurry of targeted policies rolled out to bolster the economy.

China's private Caixin Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) set a new high in four months to 50.8 in December 2023, indicating a sustained recovery in the nation's medium- and small-sized manufacturers.

As the nine tasks proposed during the Central Economic Work Conference held in December are being earnestly carried out, the country's upward economic growth trend will be sustained, Cong said.

In order to stabilize the job market, Li underlined the importance of strengthening vocational training, optimizing recruitment services, and taking steps to ensure the stable employment of key groups.

China's employment situation has registered a stable performance while consistently seeing improvement in 2023. In the first 11 months, the average surveyed urban unemployment rate came in at 5.2 percent, 0.4 percentage points lower year-on-year, according to the latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics.

The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security recently issued a circular, pledging efforts to implement the strategy on developing a quality workforce and prioritizing employment, and providing large-scale skill training to migrant workers to increase their abilities for employment and entrepreneurship, domestic media outlet Thepaper.cn reported on Friday.

Foreign geographic information software collects sensitive data, posing threat to national security: ministry

China's national security agencies have discovered that foreign geographic information system software used in important industries in China has been collecting and transmitting geographic information data with some of the information collected involving state secrets, posing a serious threat to national security, China's Ministry of State Security said on Monday, noting that national security agencies will establish and improve a collaborative mechanism for data security protection to safeguard the protection of important national data.

Geographic information data are not only an important strategic data resource, but also a new production factor that can be widely applied in various industries, however, some organizations and individuals with ulterior motives have attempted to steal sensitive geographic information data using geographic information system software, according to an article released on the ministry's WeChat public account on Monday. 

Geographic information system software is professional software that has functions such as geographic information data collection, storage, analysis, management, and sharing. Such software has powerful functions and can annotate various types of geographic information collected on maps, and analyze and display them in various formats. Coordinate accuracy can even reach the centimeter level. 

However, some foreign organizations, institutions, and individuals have set their sights on the geographic information data, attempting to conduct intelligence espionage activities using geographic information system software, according to the WeChat article.

The methods of these foreign organizations and individuals include automatically connecting to foreign servers during software usage to collect user data without restrictions, and pre-installing backdoors in the software to facilitate network attacks and data theft.

Moreover,a small number of users have limited awareness of data security and mark high-precision geographic coordinates of urban pipelines, military targets, and sensitive units on maps, creating serious risks of leakage and potential irreparable losses, according to the article. 

It also noted that geographic data are a high-value intelligence resource and are a key target for foreign intelligence agencies' espionage activities. 

"By stealing high-precision geographic information data from our country, they can reconstruct three-dimensional topographic maps of specific areas in important fields such as transportation, energy, and military, providing crucial support for reconnaissance, surveillance, and military operations, posing a serious threat to our military security," the ministry said. 

Recently, national security agencies have discovered that foreign geographic information system software used in important domestic industries has been collecting and transmitting geographic information data, and some of the data are important and sensitive, even involving state secrets, posing a serious threat to our national security. 

In response, national security agencies, together with relevant departments, are conducting special investigations and governance of geographic information data security risks, guiding and assisting relevant units in conducting inspections and rectifications, and promptly eliminating major security risks such as data theft and leakage.

China's data security law stipulates that data processing activities should be carried out in accordance with the provisions of laws and regulations, establish and improve a comprehensive data security management system, organize data security education and training, adopt corresponding technical measures and other necessary measures to ensure data security.

When units and individuals engage in geographic information data collection and processing activities, they should choose secure and reliable geographic information system software, set strict access permissions based on the importance of the data, and ensure no sensitive information is available on the internet.

National security agencies will establish and improve a collaborative mechanism for data security protection in cooperation with relevant departments to jointly safeguard the protection of important national data, the Ministry of State Security said in the article. 

The ministry also warned that the theft, espionage, bribery, or illegal provision of data that arerelated to national security and interests by foreign organizations, institutions, individuals, or collusion with domestic organizations, institutions, individuals constitute espionage under Chinese law. 

Citizens who discover such behaviors can report them by calling the 12339 tip-off hotline, logging on to the www.12339.gov.cn , or reporting to the national security agencies through the official WeChat account, the article instructed.